Bad Crow Review: Slacker Sunday (Redux)
Good news, odd news, great art, detachable penises and a dollop of Socialism!
This is a resend because we left out a link.
Links are at the end (except the links in the stories).
Let us first reiterate, from yesterday, that Elon Musk thinks attacking his advertisers would be a good way to regain their trust.1
Elon Musk is threatening to “name and shame” advertisers who have hit pause on Twitter while his takeover of the social media platform sows chaos.
The idea, apparently, is that Musk’s fans would boycott those companies until they agree to start funneling ad bucks to Twitter again.
We find that just so … genius.
There’s a rumor circulating to the effect that Twitter is recalling some of the employees they fired Friday, but no hard news on the subject yet.
UPDATE: The rumor is confirmed.2
This3 would be outstanding.
The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.
The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has been followed by a flurry of activity to avoid the destruction of the Amazon, which scientists have warned is dangerously close to tipping point after years of deforestation under its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
During his first speech as president-elect, Lula pledged to fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon, while Colombia has proposed creating an Amazon bloc at Cop27, and Norway’s environment minister is moving to reinstate a billion-dollar fund to protect the rainforest after it was halted under Bolsonaro.
That’s from The Guardian. Not an uncomplicated proposition, but one can legitimately hope they’ll make some headway.
This is entirely cool.4 I want to go. You should look at the web site.
teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka is a botanical garden by day, and an art space by night, created by the Tokyo-based art collective teamLab, known for their record-breaking museum teamLab Borderless. Unveiled over the summer at Nagai Botanical Garden in Osaka, teamLab Botanical Garden is the collective’s latest permanent open-air museum that begins to glow as the sun sets.
Stretching over an area of 240,000-sqm with a large lake at its center, Nagai Botanical Garden is home to numerous wild bird species and seasonal flora. The artworks emerge and are shaped by the garden’s plants, trees, and the birds that inhabit the area, as teamLab incorporates these natural elements through the use of non-material digital technologies - sensing, networks, light, and sound. The works transform interactively, influenced by the wind, rain, as well as by the presence of visitors.
I want to go, dammit.
Clever, clever octopi.5
Unlike other octopuses, argonauts aren't benthic – they don't live near the sea floor or other structures. Instead, they've taken on the life of drifters, floating amidst the tropical and subtropical open seas their entire life. This is the same pelagic lifestyle shared by the nautilus.
To achieve this, argonauts needed techniques to allow easy floating too, Yoshida and team explain. While their shell lacks the nautilus' more complicated internal structure of air chambers, it can still trap some air.
This shell is also known to be the argonaut's egg case, which would explain why only females develop them. The females brood their eggs within the shell's protection, eliminating the need to hide their eggs away on a substrate like the sea floor as most other octopus do.
Argonauts appear to have completely reinvented the shell from scratch to aid its transition from substrate dweller to water drifter, mimicking the nautilus in a remarkable example of convergent evolution.
Elsewhere we learned that their mates have a detachable, regenerative penis arm which the females keep inside the shell. We imagine this could be a social good among humans. Of course King Missile got there a few decades ahead of us.6
“Detachable Penis” climbing the charts, if you can picture that.
Somebody made a website called Study Finds, which seems brilliant. In this instance a study finds that alcohol can contribute to weight loss.7
Booze could actually help people shed extra pounds — as long as they nosh on nuts and other healthy bar snacks, according to new research. High-protein foods soak up alcohol without leading to pot bellies and love handles, say scientists.
Alcohol fuels the “munchies,” but needn’t necessarily cause weight gain. It has been dubbed the “aperitif effect.” The findings are based on 9,341 Australians. Participants were from the Australian National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. As expected, those who drank alcohol consumed more savory foods.
The University of Sydney study finds that drinkers who opted for high-protein, lean foods consumed fewer calories overall than people who abstain from drinking entirely. Such snacks include olives, popcorn, cocktail onions, deli meats, cheeses, raw veggies, dips and dried or fresh fruit.
Alcohol still does its other things, such as killing brain cells and contributing to other medical conditions, but if one drinks one may as well lose some weight, if one wishes.
A fake Rembrandt is a real Rembrandt,8 much to the delight of the museum where it resides, which has just doubled its Rembrandt collection without spending a dime.
Maybe a week ago yr. editors linked to a piece by Jed Bickman about oil as a sentient force,9 which we think is really well written and thought-provoking, but we forgot to link to his Substack newsletter.10 He also repairs and sells manual typewriters, which you can ask him about if you're interested.
Anti-capitalist artworks from Charles Gaines.11
Charles Gaines has unveiled his ambitious public art piece Moving Chains on New York’s Governors Island. All it took was eight years, a massive team of fabricators that included amusement-park engineers, and a whole lot of persistence.
The work, part two of his ambitious three-part project “The American Manifest,” offers a piercing critique of American capitalism that the artist hopes illustrates the way that seemingly disparate forces have shaped our nation.
“It shows the history of slavery and Manifest Destiny and colonialism and imperialism as a interlinking narrative,” Gaines told Artnet News at the press preview for the artwork. “In education they’ve been separated, but the U.S. economy was built on slavery. Manifest Destiny legalized the taking of land from other people.”
Amazing work, regardless one’s opinion of capitalism, but more poignant perhaps if you share his.
And that, comrades, is all we got. Take care, be well.
Pianist Sonny Clark, “The Sonny Clark Trio;” I liked it so much I played some more: Sonny Clark, “Blues in the Night.” Next, the remnants of The Stranglers, “Dark Matters,” a contemplative album by their standards — by anyone’s, probably — which is making us sad and playing us out.
Just so you know, I’m reading an enjoying every day, although I’m not sure keeping up-to-date on the end of the world is best described as “enjoying.” Gave Gangstagrass a first listen last night. Weird and amazing. Thanks!